


Gunthar's Balloons

by WindStainedDreams



Category: Original Work
Genre: Birthday Party, Crime, Drug Dealing, Drug Running, Drugs, Family, Family Reunion, Gen, Implied Slavery of Robots, People are not nice to the robot, Robots, Siblings, Twins, but other people are, future world, mob, mutilation of robots, sometimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 10:28:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1105718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindStainedDreams/pseuds/WindStainedDreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A robot and a family reunion during a birthday party.  What could possibly go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gunthar's Balloons

**Author's Note:**

> This does tie in indirectly with both the Pronoun and Rainbow verses, however it is not quite in the same format, and therefore separate for the moment. Enjoy!

It was a simple, small town, on the far side of a mountain. Most people knew everyone else, whether or not they were close, but it was still big enough that sometimes, you didn't know everything. Like the man who ran the party supply store. It was established a few years ago, and the owner had moved into the old Newman house outside of town, so the townsfolk really didn't get to know Mr. Marcus “Frank” Franklin all that well. He ran the store fairly and there were never any problems with him; except for that first month when some boys from town broke in to the store and destroyed many of the products. Mr. Franklin had had in the store a surprise, a robotic helper. The robot had chased all the boys back to their homes, and then gone to collect police constables to apprehend the youthful miscreants. The police were so surprised at a robot being able to do so much, but Mr. Franklin was unimpressed with the boys and the robot, and for a few days the people that came in to help or purchase did not see it around. Afterwards, people started noticing the robot standing in the far corner of the repaired shop, holding loot bag samples, balloons or piñatas, as the occasions were. But he didn't make balloon animals for the kids anymore, or let them taste candy. If robots had had souls, one would have almost whispered that his had been broken. 

It was nearing the end of August and the days were cooling, hinting at the crisp chill of autumn. The McAllister family was preparing to celebrate their twins’ birthday. George and Allison were turning twelve, and their whole extended family was coming, aunts and uncles, cousins and grandmothers and grandfathers, bringing with them great-aunts and step-cousins and new boyfriends and their partners and their pets. It was turning into a giant family reunion, with people they hadn't seen in years or ever in their lives. Their mother Matilda and Aunt Martha were planning everything. They made sure that everyone was bringing something to eat, something to drink and to the twins it seemed like fifty kinds of cake. All they wanted was that new Nerf squirt gun and that magic and chemistry set. And they wanted the robot from Mr. Franklin’s party store to do their balloons. 

Aunt Martha, Mother and the twins walked in to town to go to the store a couple of weeks before the party was scheduled and asked if they could please book the robot for the party. All Mr. Franklin said was no. When Mother pressed, he claimed that the robot was booked for another event. Now, Mrs. McAllister knew that this was not possibly the case and that it was, in fact, blatantly untrue, because she had made sure that all of the twins’ friends and their friends’ families could make it to the party. There was no other event for which the sought-after robot helper could have been booked. However, she knew that it was impossible to waste time arguing now. They had to get to the baker’s to make sure the triple-chocolate-raspberry ribbon cake would be ready in time and, more importantly, perfect. Matilda McAllister decided to come back to Mr. Franklin’s party store in a few days and try to book the robot again. There couldn't be a single thing that would make the party anything less than perfect for Allison and George. 

Over the next few days the twins and their older sister Susan and younger brother Michael spent the day cleaning their rooms and the rest of the house. They all did their part, seven year old Michael swept the rooms, and Susan, well into her teenage years at sixteen, used the chemical cleaners in the bathroom and kitchen. Their dad Hank made picnic tables to put in their giant backyard. The guest list grew and shrank and shifted and changed to the point where the twins had no idea what would happen on their big day. 

Mrs. McAllister kept trying to get in touch with Mr. Franklin, but there was still no luck getting the robot for the party. She called several times but always got the same answer – the robot was unavailable. George and Allison kept asking, and got more and more despondent as they couldn't get what they wanted. They would walk into the town square and stare through the window of Mr. Franklin’s party supply store, hoping to see the little helper. At one point, Allison thought she saw a glint of metal at the back, among a tangle of wires and crates, but George was sure she was lying, and only seeing things, so he didn't believe her. Allison was adamant that she’d seen the robot, and that there was something wrong with the way it looked. George pulled her away when she started to make a fuss, hoping the neighbours and other townsfolk wouldn't call their parents, since tomorrow was their big party, and he didn't want them to get in trouble right before it happened. They settled in to sleep knowing that tomorrow would not be as good as it could have been because Mr. Franklin’s robot wasn't going to be there. 

The next morning, Allison and George were greeted with a breakfast buffet of all of their favourite foods. Candy cane hot chocolate and raspberry pancakes for George and Allison’s cream of wheat porridge with maple syrup and walnuts and fresh hot apple cider from the first pick of the year. Then the party began. Cousins and half-cousins and great-great-uncle’s third wife’s kids jumping, laughing and screaming in the bouncy castle. Little second and third cousins playing party games like pin the tail on the donkey that George and Allison pretended they were too cool for now that they were twelve but that they secretly enjoyed when Uncle Ralph insisted they play so he could get photos for the family albums. Great Aunt Eugenia made them eat some traditional family birthday pudding. Later in the afternoon, following a lunch of turkey burgers and veggie hot dogs and steak on a Kaiser, the children were all left mostly to their own devices as the adults caught up with each other and shared gossip about the family and friends who could not make it or in Grandpa Ben’s case, reminiscing about “The Good Old Days”. George and Allison played with Michael and Susan and Thomas and Becky and Pluto, because ‘Yes, Hank, we do have to have my brother’s godfather’s kids over,’ as their mother had put it three weeks ago. Then they opened presents. They got their Nerf guns and science kits. They got books of magic tricks and two minute mysteries. They got so many toys that all of the children could go off and play with something new and exciting and not stop for hours. 

The twins decided that they had had enough of the party for a while and headed to their special place over the hill at the back of their property. From there they could see all the way down the mountain and the peaks of the surrounding ones as well. They liked watching the rivers flow in spring, growing from the melting glaciers. It was a quiet place. The children lay down in the grass, watching the clouds float passed and finding shapes in them like hidden pictures in the sky. They knew that in a few minutes they’d be asked to rejoin the party for even more fun and even more cake, but this moment was theirs. They gave each other the presents they’d gotten, special ones they knew the other really wanted. Allison got George a cookbook full of Tibetan recipes so he could impress the boy he liked and a new set of Sais for his upcoming karate test. George gave Allison a bottle of her favourite, hard to get lavender shampoo and a copy of an old science fiction novel she’d not been able to find or buy for months, the old copy of which Susan had spilled pop on so that Allison couldn't read it anymore. 

As they sat there exploring their gifts, an odd creaking seemed to come from the field below. There, standing in the sunlight, was the robot from Mr. Franklin’s shop. It looked pretty strange. It didn't really have much of a face, and it was missing an arm and part of a leg. The robot had wires coming out of its torso and head, but it managed to make its way slowly up to the twins, where their initial delight had turned into sadness at the sight before them. They approached the robot carefully, hoping that in its broken state it would not be dangerous and try to attack them. It became obviously safe to approach when, within easy speaking distance, all it did was say “Happy Birthday, from Gunthar,” before it collapsed. Allison and her brother went to the fallen robot and surveyed the damage. An expert hand had clearly inflicted it, removing sockets and screws, wire and components of circuit boards with a ruthless precision that chilled the children. George ran back to the party and got his little metalworking kit from Marie-Annabelle before he returned to where his sister had propped the robot up against a rock. She was already fiddling with some stripped wires, twisting them together with a look of hopeful concentration on her face. 

“I told you. I told you so that the robot wasn't being taken care of properly. Mr. Franklin is a weird, bad man,” Allison told George when he knelt down beside her to help. George shook his head at his twin, but it was true. He hadn't listened and now here they were, with an abused robot in their backyard on their birthday. The twins set to work on the robot, hoping to fix it. It took just over an hour, and their mother came looking for where the special guests were. Matilda found her children around a creatively patched up metal person. 

“Oh, kids, what happened to it?” she asked. 

“We don’t know, but we’re not bringing Gunthar back to Mr. Franklin,” Allison’s voice was muffled by wires and metal, her head firmly in the robot’s torso. 

“Gunthar? Is that his name?” 

It appeared as if Matilda McAllister made her appearance at just the right time, because at that moment the robot restarted and said, “Yes ma’am.” 

“Well then Gunthar, why don’t you tell us what happened to you?” Matilda addressed the robot politely. 

“Very well, ma’am,” and so he began his tale. 

“I was created by a toy manufacturing company, FunTex, to help out in stores and at parties. The man you know as Marcus Franklin bought me when he was still called Martin Keenan. Now, Kee, as he was known, was one of the higher-ups of a crime ring down in Minnesota. And here he thought he had the perfect tool. Start up a new identity, with a helper that couldn't rat him out. So, he bought me, and got a friend of a colleague to reprogram me to run and deal drugs, and came up here under the name Marcus Franklin. People you know and people you don’t would receive and send drugs and crude products through me. He was planning a shipment today; it’s why I’m not supposed to be here at your party. 

As one can assume by the very nature of the trade of dealing in illicit substances, your Mr. Franklin was not a kind master. As a robot, I do not have many freedoms, but what I had he took from me. He would damage me when things did not go well in a deal or a drop. He would reprogram me on a whim, erase all my memories. 

But you are a good family, always kind to me when you come in to the store, and I saw George and Allison waiting for me outside the window, so I knew I had to make it somehow. 

Happy Birthday Allison, Happy Birthday George,” Gunthar concluded his tale with a cheerful well wish to each of the twins. 

“What happened to you today Gunthar? Why were you all broken?” asked Allison, holding the robot’s hand in her lap. 

“The deal went south, as they say. One buyer was killed, Franklin lost a man as well and the feds busted one of our warehouses full of drugs. Somehow, I had failed to calculate all the odds and favourably predict the outcome for Master Franklin. He punished me accordingly. I felt that since his business could no longer be conducted, I would come here. 

Although I must warn you, Master Franklin has a tracker unit built into me that will tell him where I am. I appreciate all you have done for me, but I must be on my way so that no harm comes to you,” Gunthar shifted, getting ready to get up. 

“Farewell, I will probably not remember this in the future,” he told them, trying to pull his hand back from Allison’s grip and remove George’s head from his lap. 

“You mean this thing?” George asked Gunthar, not moving from his spot. 

“Why yes, that is the tracking device,” replied Gunthar, staring at the piece of metal and wire hanging from George’s hand. 

“Alright then, you’re safe here with that out of you. Mr. Franklin or Mr. Keenan or whatever his name is and his goons aren't gonna be able to find you or hurt you ever again. We won’t let him get you,” George told him emphatically. 

Allison rested her head on Gunthar’s shoulder, giving him a one-armed hug with her free hand. “He can live with us, right Mam?” Allison turned to look at her mother when she asked, a hopeful look in her eyes. 

“Of course, we have a room or two that’d be empty after tonight. You can redecorate whichever one you choose to be your own when the guests leave. Now, kids, it really is time for you to make an appearance. Aunt Martha has pie and Uncle Constance has his home made mint ice cream to go with it. I’ll stay here with Gunthar until he’s ready to join us,” and Martha ushered her children over the hill to rejoin their happy little world. For all the darkness surrounding them now, there was still a little bit of light in their smiles. 

And so it was that Gunthar joined the McAllister family. He picked the room in the attic, and filled it with robotic toys and tools he made for the others in his family. The children were all happy, and Mr. Franklin? Well, he just up and left one night, and no one in town could say that they were surprised, even if they didn't know why. And if sometimes Gunthar went moody and disappeared for a time, well, he did always come home. And that’s what mattered most. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a few years after Gunthar joined the McAllister family. The twins’ birthday was around the corner, this time it was their sweet sixteen. Gunthar knew that they would not want many of the things that others could give them, but he had an idea. Just before the party started, Gunthar walked up to the top of the hill. He was holding eight balloons, four for George, who’d become his electronic tampering friend, and four for Allison and all the times she’d help him with his programming. As the twins turned to look at where their friends were pointing, they felt twelve again. This, this is what they’d wanted, and seeing it now, after so much, was more than anything they could have wanted for their birthday. They ran to meet Gunthar, and they were laughing through their tears of joy.


End file.
